Verition Fund Management LLC Purchases New Position in Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV)

Verition Fund Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 6,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Carriage Services by 201.5% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 229,718 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,166,000 after purchasing an additional 153,538 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of Carriage Services by 8.2% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 616,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,547,000 after acquiring an additional 46,700 shares in the last quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C increased its position in Carriage Services by 198.0% during the second quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C now owns 53,584 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,438,000 after acquiring an additional 35,605 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in Carriage Services in the 3rd quarter worth about $4,310,000. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Carriage Services in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,151,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Barrington Research boosted their price target on Carriage Services from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st.

Insider Buying and Selling at Carriage Services

In related news, VP Paul Donald Elliott sold 5,000 shares of Carriage Services stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.78, for a total transaction of $188,900.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 34,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,290,791.48. The trade was a 12.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 12.10% of the company’s stock.

Carriage Services Stock Performance

CSV opened at $40.50 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $616.41 million, a P/E ratio of 18.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s fifty day moving average is $36.59 and its 200-day moving average is $32.43. Carriage Services, Inc. has a 52-week low of $22.84 and a 52-week high of $40.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.72.

Carriage Services (NYSE:CSV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.19. Carriage Services had a net margin of 8.57% and a return on equity of 23.52%. The firm had revenue of $100.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.49 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Carriage Services, Inc. will post 2.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Carriage Services Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a dividend of $0.1125 per share. This represents a $0.45 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. Carriage Services’s payout ratio is presently 20.18%.

Carriage Services Profile

Carriage Services, Inc provides funeral and cemetery services, and merchandise in the United States. It operates in two segments, Funeral Home Operations and Cemetery Operations. The Funeral Home Operations segment provides consultation services; funeral home facilities for visitation and memorial services; transportation services; removal and preparation of remains; sale of caskets and urns; cremation services; and related funeral merchandise.